Funding education

Education can open minds as well as doors. Give the children you love every opportunity to achieve their full potential. As part of your planning, incorporate education funding strategies with help from RBC Wealth Management.

Our team has in-depth knowledge to provide you with options to fund education in the most tax-effective manner and, through financial planning, to determine the required annual savings to meet your education funding goals. We’ve done our homework.

We’ll show you how saving for a beloved child’s education can fit into your plans and support their success.

Building savings with an RESP

A registered education savings plan (RESP) is a popular savings vehicle for post-secondary education. It offers tax-deferral benefits and associated government incentives, and there can be different saving strategies involving RESPs.

Through your advisor, we can help determine which type of RESP suits your needs. Once it’s set up, we help you create a strategy to contribute to the plan effectively and in alignment with your other objectives, identify appropriate investments for the RESP funds and, ultimately, plan for withdrawals in a tax-efficient way.

Thinking beyond the RESP

For many, establishing an RESP for a child is an effective strategy. However, depending on your family’s needs, the lifetime contribution limit may not be suitable or your education funding goals may include more than post-secondary education.

Your RBC Wealth Management advisor can help you explore other options and balance the needs to save for retirement and to save for a child’s education.

Family trusts

When planned properly, a family trust may be another effective education funding tool, while also potentially providing an opportunity for income splitting. A family trust can be established for the benefit of low-income family members, such as children, grandchildren, nieces or nephews.

We can help you consider whether this strategy makes sense for you and your family. Some key considerations include:

• If there are higher- and lower-income earners within your family, this type of trust may be an effective tool in reducing your family’s overall tax burden.
• With a family trust, you can loan personal funds to a properly structured trust at the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) prescribed interest rate. When implemented properly, it may allow you to shift investment income (less the annual interest payment) to your lower-income family member(s) so it may be taxed at their lower marginal tax rate(s).
• If you want to retain access to the capital loaned, this can be a more tax-effective strategy to fund expenses that directly benefit the child, such as paying for private school tuition, camp fees or lessons.